PROTOTYPE
DESIGN BRIEF
OBJECTIVE
This conceptual redesign aims to improve the information architecture and visual navigation of the Bed Bath & Beyond website.
PRODUCT
Bed Bath & Beyond is a chain of merchandise retail stores. The company sells home goods primarily for the bedroom and bathroom, as well as the kitchen and dining room.
PROBLEM
Poor information architecture and a busy navigation leaves users feeling overwhelmed.
OBJECTIVE
Through usability testing I am to find problems within the bedding category and restructure the information architecture to solve these issues.
SCOPE
This project focuses on the information architecture and navigation design of the products listed on the bed bath & beyond website. Specifically, this project aims to reorganize the information architecture of the bedding category and its subcategories.
TOOLS
Sketch, Origami Studio, InVision, Optimal Workshop, Numbers
PROCESS
DEFINING USERS
USER PERSONA
IDENTIFYING PROBLEMS
CURRENT SITE NAVIGATION
CURRENT SITE MAP
TREE JACK TEST
8 participants were asked to complete 4 tasks:
Where would you go to find a pillow covering?
Where would you find a blow up mattress?
Where would you find a down blanket?
Where would you go to find a throw pillow?
RESULTS
OBSERVATIONS
There are 3 different paths for finding pillow cases and participants still struggled to successfully find a direct path.
OPEN CARD SORT TEST
4 Participants were asked to sort 85 labeled cards into categories and name the categories which they created.
RESULTS
OBSERVATIONS
No participant grouped together items from the bedding category. These items were placed into new subcategories such as pillows.
3 out of 4 participants created a category for pillows. All 3 participants included pillows, specialty pillows, throw pillows and pillowcases in this category. Only 1 participant added shams to this category, possibly due to not knowing the card label which may be resolved by adding descriptions to the cards.
SPECIFYING PROBLEMS & POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
Performing the remote user testing allowed me to define specific problems within the bedding category and ideate solutions.
DUPLICATE LABELS
Items were found within multiple categories.
Duplicate labels should be combined and placed into the most fitting category.
TOO MANY CATEGORIES
The current information architecture for the bedding products contains 17 categories, participants created an average of 9 categories.
Combining similar categories such as Kids and Teens will help decrease the amount of categories and feel less overwhelming to users viewing the menu.
INITIAL IDEAS
Based on the feedback from the performed user testing, I redesigned the information architecture of the Bedding category.
I created a category labeled Pillows & Pillowcases.
I Combined the Kids and Teen categories into one category labeled Kids & Teens.
I Combined the Trending and Featured categories into one category labeled Featured & Trending.
TESTING IDEAS
I tested the updated bedding category architecture using a tree jack test similar to the one I performed previously on the current site architecture.
TREE JACK TEST
5 participants were asked to complete 9 tasks:
Where would you go to find a pillow protector?
Where would you find a blow up portable bed?
Where would you find a down or down alternative bed covering?
Where would you go to find a throw pillow?
Where would you find a bed skirt?
RESULTS
OBSERVATIONS
Participants were easily able to locate throw pillows and pillowcases in the newly created Pillows & Pillowcases category.
Participants showed the most difficulty finding a down or down alternative bed covering.
INFORMATION & VISUAL DESIGN
SITE MAP
NAVIGATION
Using Origami Studio I created a quick prototype of the global navigation and products menu.
I used a drop down menu which remains on the page until the user clicks products. This allows the user to view the menu at their own pace without having to worry about it disappearing. This is important as the menu is long and contains many categories.
I used visuals along with labels for the categories in order to help users pick the category to browse more quickly and efficiently. This also helps define labels and avoid confusion.
On the Bedding page I created a visual navigation of the main categories, consistent with the products menu design. This type of menu allows users to easily visualize all of the categories without having to hover or scroll. The pictures help users quickly identify which category to browse and help users who may not understand a term.
The categories that tend to change frequently (Featured & Trending, New Arrivals, and Clearance & Savings) utilize full width visuals which can be used to draw users into the page.
FINAL PRODUCT
PROTOTYPE
